Warning: Possible spoilers ahead.

The latest Pixar movie “Turning Red” (Disney, 2022), tells a typical coming-of-age story: A girl develops her own identity as a teen, finds her place in the world, and the trials and tribulations involved are at the story’s core. What sounds like a run-of-the-mill movie is in fact a multi-layered tale that cleverly draws on well-researched Chinese mythology and literature, interwoven with that basic coming-of-age story.

Mei, the protagonist, is a Chinese-Canadian girl who helps taking care of her family’s temple and displays meme-like qualities in being the perfect Chinese daughter, top-grades included.¹ However, one day Mei discovers to her dismay that she turns into a giant, fluffy red panda when in emotional distress. Her parents are not surprised at all: A red panda is the protective spirit of Mei’s maternal family line. The transformative powers are granted to female descendants, including Mei, to protect the family. Tradition has it that the spirit and thus the ability to transform must be contained in an amulet, because in modern times, big red pandas are more of a public disturbance than protection. While Mei’s parents are adamant in containing her inner panda, she herself is unsure - and receives unexpected support by her friends. The plot is thus not only a coming-of-age tale, but also revolves around the difficulties of multicultural identity, of upholding traditions versus allowing them to adapt to a new cultural context.

While all this adds to the interpretive layers of the movie, the plot twist - Mei turning into a red panda - is worth closer investigation. I was captivated by the in-depth research and the well-placed, sometimes tongue-in-cheek references to Chinese culture and daily life.² What struck me most, however, was “Turning Red”’s major theme of transformation, a girl turning into a red panda (and back). This essentially mimicks topics and tales from the Liaozhai zhiyi 聊齋誌異 by Pu Songling 蒲松齡 (1640-1715), reinforcing the cultural references of the movie.³ Hailed as “China’s version of Grimm’s fairy tales”⁴, the Liaozhai is a collection of roughly 500 tales ranging from short notes to elaborate, several-pages long stories of the strange and mysterious. A group of its tales centers around transformation and transgression and how this enables to explore taboo topics, especially for female protagonists. There are women transforming into spirits, foxes, men; (female) foxes transforming into women (and often seducing innocent scholars), allowing them all to test out whatever is forbidden in their original form. The same holds true for Mei: In red panda form, she is allowed to be destructive, powerful, disobedient, loud, imperfect - basically everything she is forbidden by her overly protective Tiger Mom and her own cultural identity.

“Turning Red” therefore successfully adapts topics from the Liaozhai to a modern-day context, including its ending. While the original tales often punish the transgression (fox leaves, woman dies, doom descends), “Turning Red” affirms the transgression, Mei’s divergence, and allows a happy ending: She keeps her panda, and it benefits everyone around her including herself. That’s why the movie succeeds on so many levels: It references its cultural roots, marries it with other cultural contexts and conveys the message that no matter how complex your cultural identity is, you’re okay. Even as a giant red fluffy panda.

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There are various translations of the Liaozhai, but of varying quality. Herbert A. Giles’ is an early one, publicly available, but rather dated. I recommend John Minford’s translation referenced below. Those who are interested in the original: There are plenty full-text versions available online, but it’s classical Chinese, so I recommend a modern Chinese adaptation.

Zeitlin, Judith T.: “Historian of the Strange: Pu Songling and the Chinese Classical Tale”. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993. Judith T. Zeitlin has extensively researched Pu Songling and the Liaozhai zhiyi, she is one of the eminent scholars on the topic.

Minford, John: “Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio”. London: Penguin, 2006. Partial and good translation of the Liaozhai zhiyi.

Pu Sung-ling: “Aus der Sammlung Liao-dschai-dschi-yi.” Deutsch von Gottfried Rösel. Zürich: Die Waage, 1982-1992, 5 volumes, out of print. Complete (!), yet rather freely translated version of the Liaozhai zhiyi.

Image courtesy of Michael Payne on Unsplash.

Footnotes

Last modified on 2022-03-31